Poisonous snakes. Blood-sucking leeches. Enemy troops eager to destroy him. Forced marches through difficult terrain. Chances of getting back to base on any given day: questionable. Reward: getting to do it all over again in a week or so. Question: Why would a peaceable, intellectually curious student join the army to live this kind of life? What forces had moved him to take part in a war? Alex White had asked himself these questions more than once. Over time, he came to understand that he was there due to a sense of duty. He believed that his country, indeed, democracies throughout the world, faced serious threats from Communist expansion; every responsible citizen had an obligation as a patriot to oppose that to the best of their ability. So, he joined the army, serving first in intelligence, gathering information on enemy capabilities. When the opportunity arose, he was able to help break up a foreign spy network. This led to his becoming an Army Ranger and leading Hmong warriors in Southeast Asia to call in air strikes and carry out ambushes aimed at preventing North Vietnam's invasion of South Vietnam. The work was demanding, the enemy unrelenting, the results sometimes questionable. He saw the enemy and his own troops wounded, killed, dismembered. Enemy losses were great, but they never stopped coming. What drove them in their unrelenting effort? This was what Alex had to know, what he continued to ask himself as fought his battles—until he could not. I invite you to join his quest to know why we are willing to risk death itself to meet our objectives